If you are in the social marketing space or just getting up to speed, please remember Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc., are only tools---it's what you do with them that makes the difference.
Here are rules to live by:
1. Listen to your customers or die. If you don't respond to your customers quickly, there's no reason to be in social media.
2. Try to please your customer through social media. Give them a "remarkable" experience, one that they will tell others about.
3. Have a plan. Why are you using Facebook? Why would anyone follow your posts?
4. Have a plan. Why are you using Twitter? Why would anyone follow your tweets?
5. Use the 80/20 rule: Eighty percent of your posts should be helpful advice and tips for followers within your category; only 20% about your business and events. The only exception might be a nonprofit which uses Facebook to show "stories" about how donations are helping people in the community.
6. Develop a set of metrics that are important to your organization. For instance, it might be more important to set a goal and increase follower posts on Facebook rather than total likes because you are more interested in the percentage of engagement.
7. Social media marketing is not the social to everything but these are the channels where your customers are talking and that's why you need to listen to those conversations and join in.
(c) Joseph Barnes Digital3000.Net
